What precautions are you taking against the coronavirus in your poly networks?

Puck is planting since it's spring. Adam and I actually given up on veggies despite having a bit of land since we both sucked at weeding. Now we have a gardener we might revisit that at Easter, but Adam doesn't want veggies in the front, even though I'd be a fan. But he has to live with it. If we do out the back again (the sunny side) then it will be with raised beds. Big outlay, though. Oo, I've just had a design thought, will see about that.
When we first chose the house I had visions of a kitchen garden that I could give stuff away from but I wasn't a good enough gardener.
 
I would ask your friends and neighbors why you're not *already* growing your own vegetables if you're so informed with this inside track that the unwashed masses are so incapable of understanding. Yes, you are indeed arrogant.

Your premises here are false, REF. I am already growing food -- herbs and veggies. But the last frost is in the future, so I'm making starts for future planting outside. I also plan -- with my neighbors -- of having a backyard chicken coop for eggs.

Gardening and providing a few chicken eggs will not entirely feed us, of course. That requires more land than we have, so we're planning to start up more community gardens in the neighborhood, and maybe a community farm.

I don't care if everyone here thinks I'm arrogant. Because there are facts, and one fact is that most people don't really understand economics, including most economists. Mostly, that's because most economists, and most people, don't really understand how natural and artificial systems intersect. It's not my fault that I understand these things better than most. I earned my understanding the hard way, by long study. If being very knowledgeable about something means a person is arrogant, then so be it. To me, it is arrogant to assume one knows a subject without having done the work of understanding. It is arrogant to presume to understand things one does not.

We're at the beginning stage of a Depression. It isn't a mere recession. It is global, not just national. This, to my mind, is a fact -- though it cannot be measured as a fact yet because recessions and depressions need lots of data we don't have yet. What we have now is an obvious collapse of the global economy without all of the numbers having been set and crunched.

It's even worse than the writer here says -- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/quantifying-coming-recession/608443/ -- because the feedback loops are still unfolding. Unemployment leads to more unemployment, which leads to more unemployment. Bankruptcies and unserviced debts lead to further bankruptcies and unserviced debts. The governments won't be able to patch this up with 'stimulus' or any other tricks.

Meanwhile, the actual pandemic will not be over in just a few weeks. It will be unfolding at least for months, possibly years. We're in the First Wave of infections and in massive quarantine. Schools and businesses are shut. Not much going on. Cities look like ghost towns. As soon as we begin loosening our quarantine and returning to something closer to business as usual a lot more people will become infected: The second wave. That will have its own economic repercussions.

Most of the economists on mainstream media are there to re-assure us that everything will be okay, things will be patched up with stimulus and whatnot. But the odds of any such patches working are poor, to say the least.

https://www.resilience.org/stories/...y-nate-hagens-on-coronavirus-and-the-economy/
 
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In answer to what precautions...

Relationships: Monogamy for the time being. No chasing women around for me, no lovers on the horizon for Minxi. Need to stock up on lube, which was strangely sold out at the local supermarket.

Financially: We are self employed. First we make whatever orders we have left on the system, then we spend some of our superanuation they have allowed us to access. So essentially the government here wants us to spend our retirement before they help us, then we try for unemployment welfare, then we spend our savings, then we spend our withheld income tax, then we max out our credit cards and then we go into more debt from low interest loans to small businesses. Fingers crossed we lose the cars and keep the house.

Food: we have enough food for one month without being among the greedy hoarder crowd and only a modest supply of loo paper. And we have 3 acres we can grow veggies on, we have several fruit trees and chickens who may need to do double duty as arse wiping devices as well as ducks n sheep... Until the crazy starving hordes from the city come over the hills and kill us for our chickens.

Emotionally: We have each other. Me the investigator and planner, she the one who will bury herself in creative pursuits.

Lifestyle: We are quite isolated geographically and I'm used to not seeing other people for weeks on end so that won't bother me. Minxi is more outgoing and will miss her family in lockdown. Good on the internet for skype and messenger. At least until the power goes out...

Future: I have quite good skills at making things from wood, so I will be re employed by my fellow cavemen in the craft of wagon building as well as bondage equipment for our more alternative cave dwellers (who also volunteer to be used as horses to pull the wagons?) . Minxi may be valued as a painter of stories on the cave walls. I hope the tribe does not see fit to use her to birth other humans to strengthen our small band of yokels.

As you can see, I'm quite the optimist.
 
My warning that America and the world were heading into the next Great Depression were initially regarded in here as so much stupid hysteria, but a growing list of qualified experts on that question are saying just that. One of these is a fellow you should all know about, since he's incredibly smart about how natural and artificial systems interact with one another. His name is Richard Heinberg. In the below-linked article he says we're heading into a global economic depression.

https://www.resilience.org/stories/...ics-covid-19-will-shape-the-fates-of-nations/

And now the president of the United States, a pathological liar and narcissistic imbecile (great qualifications!) is also worried that the USA will have a financial / economic collapse should continue to do what we must to protect citizens from an untimely death from Covid-19.

Call me arrogant if you like, but it's not my fault I can see the writing on the wall which most folks cannot see. I have a special set of systems science goggles which allow me to see what is written there.

So please organize your lives accordingly. If you live in a city or suburb, look into urban permaculture. And social permaculture. Grow food. Veggies, fruits, herbs, chickens, quail, turkey, goats.... Learn basic self and community provisioning skills. Prepare the soil. Get ready for lean times and potential hunger.
 
It's so ironic reading my earlier response and seeing just how quickly it changed. We've been basically doing shelter in place, minus a few grocery orders or takeout food orders, since the middle of last week - though I am seeing Artist once a week or so. It's not advisable, in some ways, as his wife still sees a few of her clients though mostly works from home and he totally works from home, but collectively we're all a lot less risk than living with someone who still goes into the office all the time so for now it makes sense.
 
Food: we have enough food for one month without being among the greedy hoarder crowd and only a modest supply of loo paper. And we have 3 acres we can grow veggies on, we have several fruit trees and chickens who may need to do double duty as arse wiping devices~RECORD SCRATCH

Please describe how to wipe your ass with a chicken in 1000 words or less. Aaaaaaand... GO!
 
My warning that America and the world were heading into the next Great Depression were initially regarded in here as so much stupid hysteria, but a growing list of qualified experts on that question are saying just that. One of these is a fellow you should all know about, since he's incredibly smart about how natural and artificial systems interact with one another. His name is Richard Heinberg. In the below-linked article he says we're heading into a global economic depression.

https://www.resilience.org/stories/...ics-covid-19-will-shape-the-fates-of-nations/

And now the president of the United States, a pathological liar and narcissistic imbecile (great qualifications!) is also worried that the USA will have a financial / economic collapse should continue to do what we must to protect citizens from an untimely death from Covid-19.

Call me arrogant if you like, but it's not my fault I can see the writing on the wall which most folks cannot see. I have a special set of systems science goggles which allow me to see what is written there.

So please organize your lives accordingly. If you live in a city or suburb, look into urban permaculture. And social permaculture. Grow food. Veggies, fruits, herbs, chickens, quail, turkey, goats.... Learn basic self and community provisioning skills. Prepare the soil. Get ready for lean times and potential hunger.

But our Orange Man said everything will be back to normal in a week or two lol.

When I said everything will be okay I didn't mean we wouldn't be affected at all. I have zero confidence in our administration.
 
Please describe how to wipe your ass with a chicken in 1000 words or less. Aaaaaaand... GO!

Ok... First it starts with sourcing the chicken, naturally. Generally chickens are hard to catch unless they have been raised by hand from very young. This is important especially when you are busting for a crap. You know, belly pains and threat of a brown visitor in your pants kind of busting... In that case you will be glad you hand raised them. Hand raised chickens will come to ''chook chook chook'' said in a high pitch and often if you hover over them they go into a shaking squat.

Kind of disconcerting as it appears to be an action they perform for the rooster, but if you don't have a rooster they sort of see you as the dom...Ok, this is getting kinda weird and uncomfortable.

Anyway, once you have secured your chicken, hopefully not the same one you used last time as it takes time for them to self clean by rolling in the dirt, tuck said chicken into the crook of your arm. It will quite happily sit like that clucking. Now it is time to move to your toilet facility and do what nature intends with mr poo. If you are taking significant time and do not have a book to read while enthroned you can talk to the chicken, comfort it in relation to to what is coming next. Remember, chickens were not bred for this purpose. But since the shortage of toilet paper became pandemic they will evolve to like it I'm sure. As to humans, I'm not so sure we will evolve to like it.

Now, you need to untuck the chicken from the crook of your arm and transfer it to your dominant hand. If you hold the chicken firmly, making sure to secure the wings they become quite docile and are easy to flip upside down and be used in a back or forward motion, whichever you normally prefer. Try hard to keep the feet away from delicate areas as they can contain harmful bacteria and are sharp as razor blades.

Once you are done it is not advisable to re tuck the chicken under your arm for obvious reasons. You do need to find a way to secure your freshly unfreshened chicken though. It is advisable to swap the chicken to the other hand grabbing it by the feet and letting it dangle upside down. Hopefully your selected chicken is docile for if the wings are soiled and flap around you may to do much cleanup in your surroundings after releasing it back to the yard.

You can choose to pull up your pants one handed while holding the chicken upside down at arms length or waddle out of the bathroom into the yard, fling the chicken away and then pull up your pants. If you live in a remote area with no close neighbors that generally is not a problem.

If you are having a bout of diarrhea it might pay to keep several chicken on hand, sometimes you can tuck as many as three under one arm. In this case it becomes even more important to make sure once wiped the chicken do not flap their wings!

Now, don't forget to wash your hands for 20 seconds.
 
But our Orange Man said everything will be back to normal in a week or two lol.

When I said everything will be okay I didn't mean we wouldn't be affected at all. I have zero confidence in our administration.

Me too.

I recommend reading this:

https://www.resilience.org/stories/...the-systemic-implications-of-the-coronavirus/

Resilience.org has lots of good recent articles on how the novel coronavirus is connected with other topics like the climate and ecological crisis, etc. I plan to be contributing some articles of my own there soonish.
 
If you are having a bout of diarrhea it might pay to keep several chicken on hand, sometimes you can tuck as many as three under one arm. In this case it becomes even more important to make sure once wiped the chicken do not flap their wings!

Now, don't forget to wash your hands for 20 seconds.

My roommate who has multiple sclerosis exploded this morning. Send chickens.
 
Never have I wanted a bidet so badly.
 
Never have I wanted a bidet so badly.

I have a Facebook friend that has a diaper sprayer on their toilet for cloth diapers. He adapted it to adjust water flow so it can do "double duty after adults doody." (His words) lol
 
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